Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry calls for urgent reforms to improve business environment

Islamabad, October 31, 2014 (PPI-OT): Expressing great concerns over the falling global ranking of Pakistan in “Ease of Doing Business”, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry has called upon the government to take urgent measures to bring necessary reforms in order to facilitate the businessmen in promoting business activities with ease in the country.

Muzzamil Hussain Sabri, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the latest World Bank’s annual report on “Doing Business” has shown Pakistan a tougher place to do business as its global ranking has further come down to 128thposition out of 189 countries, which should be a cause of great concerns for the policymakers.

He said many countries have taken steps to implement a broad range of reforms to improve business environment for strengthening economy, but successive governments despite making promises have been unable to create conducive business environment due to which businessmen in Pakistan were still facing many problems.

Muzzamil Sabri said government should take steps to make easy the complex procedures of business registration, give preference to businesses in providing utility services and simplify the complicated tax payments and import/export procedures as these are the main hurdles in starting new business and promoting business activities in the country.

He said that international investors make investment decisions after reviewing a country’s position on the Ease of Doing Business Index. However, Pakistan’s unsatisfactory performance on key indicators, especially on starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credits, paying taxes and enforcing contracts highlights the country was facing challenges in attracting foreign and local investment.

He said countries like Singapore and Switzerland were preferred destinations for investors because they have brought progressive reforms in ease of doing business and Pakistan should work on similar lines to provide maximum facilitation to investors and business starters, which will help in attracting foreign investment and generating more business activities.